PJ: Lost in History
by bookgeek96
Summary: The Titan war is over, Kronos has been defeated and everyone can live in peace now right? I thought that for about ten minutes, then I received a request from Chiron to investigate strange occurrences happening at a lake up in Canada with Annabeth and Nico...and Mrs. O' Leary. Little did I know how different things were going to be after we find someone there who doesn't exist...
1. Chapter 1: We take a field trip on a dog

**Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

**Lost in History**

**AN: Heeey, so this is my first PJaO fanfic, yay! reviews are appreciated**

_Chapter 1_

* * *

Being a demigod isn't easy let me tell you. Sure you can have cool powers, your godly parent can control stuff like the entire ocean and you get a cool weapon that can be concealed in a simple pen. You may be thinking, 'Hey that's awesome! Who wouldn't want that? Are you some kind of weirdo?' well being one also entitles you to have a huge target on your back for all sorts of nasties, getting you killed in unpleasant ways and only getting one safe haven in the entire world! There are times I'd rather kiss a toilet seat and live in a manure pile than be a demigod, but maybe I'm being to drastic.

I suppose it isn't as bad as I've led on, I mean, I did end up meeting some great friends and an incredible girlfriend that at times makes me feel dumb as bricks. Good times.

My name is Percy Jackson; I'm currently sixteen and live in New York City with my mother Sally Jackson and stepfather Paul Bofis. Things have currently been pretty calm, which is a bit of a shock to all of us.

See, things were a little…messed up over the past few years, it all started with a whole spat about someone stealing Zeus' master bolt, a son of Hermes joining the Titans and helping the lord of time, Kronos rising from Tartarus and then starting a whole war between the Titans and gods…nothing too major but it did cause a bit of grief…

It was just the beginning of summer and I was currently preparing for departure to Camp Half Blood, the safe haven for people like me, half-bloods, the children of ancient Greek gods and mortals. My father's Poseidon by the way, meaning I'm a child of the 'Big Three', and that also means my life is a little more complicated than the other Demigods'

I continued to pack my bag, though I didn't need much since I already had a supply of clothes in my cabin (yes I am aware that they've most likely sat there unwashed since last summer since the cleaning harpies most likely missed them…)

There was a quiet rapping on my bedroom door as I pulled my orange Camp Half Blood shirt over my head.

"Come in!" I said, assuming it was my mom.

"Nice abs Seaweed Brain," a voice said, most definitely not my mother's voice. I jumped three feet in the air and ended up falling back into my dresser. Still with my shirt caught over my head. Quickly pulling it down, I looked to see, much to my everlasting shame, my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, leaning casually in the doorway. _'Alright Zeus, you can go ahead and blast me to ashes now, nothing's going to top that'_ I thought miserably, seeing that she was clearly fighting back laughter.

"Still as graceful as ever." She said, walking over and holding out her hand to me. Reluctantly I took it and she helped me back to my feet. Annabeth's curly blonde hair was still the same as I remember, but it wasn't messy this time, and it even smelled like lemons. She wore an orange t-shirt like mine, her celestial bronze dagger strapped to her arm and a bag slung over her shoulder. I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair, my face still felt hot as I attempted to act cool.

"Uhhh…" was all I could say, causing her to snicker.

"I see your range of vocabulary still staggers the imagination." She mused. I let out a sigh.

"Hey Annabeth…I thought you were going to meet me when I got to Half Blood Hill?" I said.

"About that…Chiron sent me here because he wants us to make a little pit stop first." Annabeth explained.

"A pit stop? Where? What's going on?" I asked.

"Apparently there is something happening up at Lake Okanogan, in Canada. Some satyrs up there have been attacked by a monster that lives in the lake." Annabeth replied.

"What kind of pit stop is that? It's all the way across the continent in another country." I gawked, "and I've heard of that monster, locals call in the Ogopogo, it's just some myth. It's not even Greek."

"Percy, I thought you moved past the whole 'it's just a myth' stage already." Annabeth rolled her eyes, I shook my head and picked up my packed bag and slung it over my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, ok, I guess lake monsters would be my department, but how are we supposed to get there?" I asked. Annabeth took my hand and let me out of the room towards the exit of the apartment.

"Don't worry, I've got it all arranged." She explained as we left, after a fast goodbye from my mom of course, but she was used to these sudden departures I did by now. We made our way down to the main floor of the building, but instead of heading out the front, Annabeth pulled me out through a back janitor's door and into an alley. Out waiting for us was a boy about twelve, he had pale skin and was wearing an aviator jacket over a black shirt covered in skulls, and his hair was messy and jet-black. He leaned against an enormous mass of fur the size of a dump truck, a giant black dog chewing on an empty metal garbage can.

"Nico?" I asked, rather surprised to see him here of all places.

_AROOF!_

"Hey Mrs. O Leary." I greeted the dog, the world's only friendly hellhound to be exact, and patted her nose. She licked me with her enormous tongue until I was drenched head to toe in drool, my ability to stay dry didn't apply to monster drool as I have come to discover since I started taking care of her several years ago.

"Sup Percy, ready to go shadow travel some more?" Nico asked me casually. He was the son of Hades, so he could do things like that. But since there were so many people going via shadow travel I assumed that's why my dog was here, she could carry us all easy.

"Yeah I guess so." I replied, Annabeth climbed on top of Mrs. O Leary and pulled Nico and I up on her back as well. The son of Hades whispered something in the Hellhound's ear. She stood up immediately and started bounding down the alley, making the ground vibrate so much I wondered if people were going to start screaming 'Earthquake!' she then ran towards a shadowy wall and went right through into a black abyss.

After speeding through the unknown shadowzone, we appeared in a different location, somewhere in the rocky mountains by some empty picnic area beside a big lake, so thankfully there weren't any mortals around to wet their pants at the sight of three kids riding a giant mastiff appearing out of thin air. We jumped off Mrs. O Leary before she fell over and flattened us. Shadow Travel really tended to wear her out.

"So…where's this Ogopogo?" I asked.

"Still in the lake, duh." Annabeth snorted, "Apparently it likes to show up around sunset."

"So we have some time to look around." Nico added, "maybe we can find some satyrs around here, or Naiads since this is a fresh water area."

"Good idea, there's a town down that way at the end of the lake, let's go." Annabeth said and led us along a road; Mrs. O Leary was perfectly content snoozing in a shadow close to the picnic table so we left her there, the Mist would be enough to mask her from mortal eyes so we didn't have to worry about anyone seeing her. I followed my friends, glancing at the lake a few times. It looked harmless enough, but it was definitely more than big enough for a serpent to call home, the blue/green water stretched out along the valley in the mountains, smooth as stone, no ripples at all. But I also got a strange feeling, a small tug in my chest, like an urge to go dive into the water that very second, but it was strange because I didn't feel as at ease by fresh water as I did by the sea. I did remember something said that Poseidon wasn't as welcome around the fresh water realms, though he did technically rule them, he didn't really go in them, he stayed in the sea.

"Percy, you coming or what?" I heard Nico call to me. I snapped out of my thoughts to notice that I was standing at the lake's edge, several feet behind my friends.

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming, just got distracted." I replied and ran up to meet them, and to get far away from that lake as I could.

* * *

Annabeth was right about the small town at the end of the lake, there was a long beach that stretched from one end of the valley to the other, there were a few people there soaking up the last rays of the day from the sun, some kids were splashing in the shallow water, completely oblivious to what might have been lurking beneath the depths. A road was parallel to the beach; on the other side were a few motels and restaurants. I caught sight of a girl playing a guitar while sitting on the shore, her feet in the water as she played something that sounded a bit like an old sea chantey that pirates would sing. I found that a bit odd but then turned away to face Annabeth and Nico.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Well, we probably have about an hour before sunset, maybe you could go investigate the lake now?" Nico replied. I looked at the water again, feeling a nervous flutter in my gut, which wasn't like me at all, I'm not afraid of water, so why was this lake any different?

"Yeah…I could do that." I replied slowly.

"Percy are you ok? You look a bit pale." Annabeth told me, her stormy grey eyes were studying my face intently. I shrugged.

"I'm fine, no worries." I said and turned towards the beach and walked out onto the sand. I stepped into the cool water and immediately started feeling strange. That urge to jump in wasn't there anymore, if anything, it almost felt like something was pushing me away, like the water didn't want me touching it, I heard the song that the girl was playing on her guitar falter a bit but then continued, though the chantey didn't sound as nice as before. I walked deeper into the water until it was up to my knees, but that's when I definitely felt the water pushing me, I dug my feet into the sand and shuffled deeper into the water.

That's when things went wrong.

Suddenly I felt something in the water wrap around my ankles, it wasn't solid but I couldn't get it off, it was like a tendril of water…but under water, and before I could even make a squeak the presence pulled be under the surface. I heard my friends shouting my name but there was nothing I could do except thrash as it pulled me deeper into the water. I had never felt more thankful to be a son of Poseidon than at that moment, I was unable to drown and the pressure of the water had no effect on me so I didn't have to worry about being crushed up like a ball of tinfoil. It pulled me until I let out a grunt and concentrated, I was not going to let this _thing_ take me any further. Clenching my hands into fists and gritting my teeth, I willed my own current to pull myself in the opposite direction. It pulled back but I pulled harder until it finally released me. I then pulled out my ballpoint pen from my pocket, and yes in fact that does sound as heroic as it sounds! Pulling off the cap, the pen lengthened in my hand until a celestial bronze sword, Riptide, had taken its place. I held up the sword in a threatening fashion, trying to scare whatever had grabbed me into submission, but I didn't see anything in the dark, even with my heat sensitive eyes, at least, until I heard something that sounded like something between a growl and a hiss, a _griss_ if you will. Then I saw it, a long serpent like shape snaked into view, though it was far away from me, I could tell it was huge, it's eyes were almost glowing, the water around its body boiled. Then I felt another urge hit me as soon as it laid its eyes on me.

_'SWIM AWAY!' _screamed in my head, and after a split second,I obeyed. Summoning another current, I rode up to the surface and burst out like a shot out of a cannon. I flew several feet in the air before landing in the shallow water, but luckily didn't hit the bottom.

"Percy!" Annabeth shouted from the shore, "What happened? Are you alright?"

"F-f-fine!" I stuttered, still in shock as I bolted to the shore and flopped down onto the dry sand. Nico and Annabeth were at my side in seconds. I never felt so happy that they were here with me.

"Did you see it?" Nico asked as I looked at them.

"Yeah, I saw it." I managed to say, though in a higher octave than I preferred. I must have looked pretty pathetic or something because Annabeth pulled out a sweater from my bag and draped in on me despite the fact that I was still bone dry, another trait earned from my father, I couldn't get wet unless I wanted to.

"What did it look like? What did it do to you?" she asked, looking concerned. I took a deep breath to compose myself again.

"It's big, and it looked like a giant snake, I didn't get a good look at it though." I replied, "It was too far away."

"Wait, if it was too far than what pulled you under?" Nico asked, his eyebrows creased in confusion.

"I'm not sure…it almost felt like the water itself did it." I said. Annabeth placed her index finger and thumb on her chin, deep in thought.

"Seems like someone doesn't want us here." She murmured.

"Or they don't want Percy here." Nico put in, shrugging. Great, that made me feel loads better.

"Maybe we should go somewhere to eat, take our minds off this for now, get away from the water.." I suggested, _'gods, I can't believe I just said that…'_ I added mentally as soon as the words left my mouth. Annabeth nodded thoughtfully.

"That's probably the wisest course of action for the moment, we need to make a plan on how to take care of this." She said and stood back up. I got to my feet as well and slipped the sweater all the way on, suddenly feeling a bit chilled. Nico gave me a pat on the back before following Annabeth across the road, I walked after them as well, turning my back to the lake and not looking back once. I could still hear that girl playing her guitar, but the music sounded nice again once I was off that beach.


	2. Chapter 2: I fight non existing monsters

Chapter 2

* * *

Annabeth chose a small café that sat on the other side of the road, it was a cozy place with not many people around, we chose a table and ordered drinks. I knew Annabeth was thinking hard on the next plan of action, jotting down some ideas on a napkin, and ultimately crossing them out and moving to a blank napkin, I think she had gone through seven of them so far. I had my head in my hands, the image of that serpent burning in my mind. I felt so unlike myself, like for the first time I couldn't control the water around me, it was just so strange, it was like when I plunged into the River Styx and feeling the sensation of not being able to breathe under water. I glanced at Nico as he drummed his fingers on the table. I could tell he didn't really want to be there, being a son of Hades; he wasn't really one for public places and having other people looking at him. He kept glancing at the ground under his chair as if he were waiting for it to open and swallow him whole.

"Percy, you look terrible." Annabeth's voice snapped me out of my thoughts so hard I almost got whiplash.

"Yeah, sorry, just thinking hard." I replied.

"Don't hurt yourself." Nico snickered; Annabeth gave him a kick under the table. I rolled my eyes.

"Very funny Death Breath." I retorted half-heartedly. Annabeth still looked at me concerned so I shrugged, "Don't worry, we'll take care of this thing, all we have to do is get a little help."

"Who would help us?" Nico questioned before taking a sip of his Sprite. I was about to reply when something caught my eye. I looked across the restaurant to see a small stage with an old brown piano, and sitting on the piano bench was the same girl I had seen on the beach. She had pale skin and jet black hair tied up with what looked like green seaweed, odd, she wore an old t-shirt and shorts, she was also barefoot but nobody seemed to notice, so I guess the whole 'no shoes, no shirt, no service' thing went out the window for her. She was looking right at me so I quickly looked back down at my drink, but that didn't go unnoticed.

"What is it?" Annabeth asked.

"There's a kid over at the piano who keeps looking at us." I murmured without removing my gaze from the table. Nico nodded slowly without looking at her.

"She hasn't stopped staring at us since we sat down." He said quietly. Annabeth caught a quick glimpse at her before quickly turning around again.

"You think she might be…" she trailed off.

"Dunno, she was on the beach as well, maybe it isn't a coincidence." I said slowly standing up, "I'll go see."

Neither of them protested so I walked over to the piano as nonchalantly as I could. The girl was now playing a quiet tune on the piano. I leaned against the wall with my hands in my pockets.

"You're pretty good on the piano." I said finally, trying to create some small talk. The girl nodded while not looking away from the keys.

"Thanks, I do enjoy it." She replied, but there was almost an edge to her tone.

"So…you like it around here? Haven't seen anything strange in the lake?" I asked. She kept playing for a good minute before answering.

"It is nice here, but no, I've never seen anything weird." She replied stiffly, finally glancing over at me with a pair of green eyes. I also noticed her ears were slightly pointed.

_Ok, might as well go out on a limb_

"Really? Because I was dragged into the lake and saw a giant serpent." I said casually. Part of me was hoping that she was just going to stare at me like I had grown a second head, but instead she stopped playing the piano and shot me another look. I guess Annabeth and Nico must have noticed her tensing up because they were at my side immediately. The girl slowly relaxed.

"Perhaps you should have taken that as a warning." She said, eyeing them. Annabeth narrowed her eyes.

"And why do we need a warning, girl?" she demanded as she started pulling out her dagger. Thankfully nobody else was really paying us any attention.

"There's no need to be pulling out knives, Annabeth." The girl said, raising an eyebrow. That sent a warning chill up my spine, if someone inexplicably knew our names it usually meant bad monstrous things were about to happen.

"How do you know my name?" Annabeth demanded. I gripped my pen in my pocket, ready to pull out riptide.

"It says so on your bag." The girl said, gesturing to Annabeth's backpack that was still hung over her shoulder.

Oh.

"My…right, my bag…" Annabeth muttered, I could tell she was probably mentally slapping herself. I relaxed slightly and brought my hand back out of my pocket. The girl closed the lid to the piano and then leaned casually against it.

"Alright, let's start again; my name's Nessa, but you can call me Ness," she introduced herself and then looked at Nico, "what's yours?"

"Uh…Nico Di Angelo." Nico greeted, nodding his head while still keeping his hand hovering over his sword hilt. Ness nodded but then continued to study him.

"Hmm…you seem quite pale, with dark begs under your eyes, and there's a weird scent on you…reminds me of…death? You obviously spend a lot of time around graveyards, lack of sleeps suggests that you travel a lot, most likely alone seeing how you're a little more distant than others, doesn't like people…" she continued to muse, I exchanged a look with Annabeth as Nico just stared at her, Nessa finally sat up straighter, "huh, a son of Hades, haven't seen one of those in a while…"

"What?" Nico asked, going rigid. All right, somehow she figured out who he was just by observing him, which was different. She looked at Annabeth next, making her shift uncomfortably.

"Blonde hair, the stormy grey eyes are obvious enough…daughter of Athena clearly…" Ness deduced and finally looked at me. I found myself stepping back when I saw the cold look in her eyes, she wasn't thinking aloud like she did with my friends but I could tell that she probably knew who I was regardless.

"Uh...I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon…" I said quietly, she only narrowed her eyes at that. Annabeth finally cleared her throat.

"Ok, so obviously you know we're Demigods…" she said uneasily, taking a quick look around to make sure no bloodthirsty demons popped out of the walls at the sound of 'Demigods' and then looked back at the raven haired girl, "so you obviously aren't mortal…what are you?"

Nessa looked at her, "It's complicated." Was her reply. She then stood up, "if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

"But do you know anything about that creature in the lake?" Nico asked.

"All I know is that it isn't causing any harm in my lake, so you can just go back to your camp." Ness replied as she picked up her guitar that was leaning against the piano.

"Your lake?" I repeated. Nessa just gave me that look again, which was really getting on my nerves. What did she have against me anyway? She kept acting like I had poked her between the eyes and kicked her in the shin. Annabeth seemed to be piecing something together at that moment.

"You're a Naiad aren't you?" she concluded. Ness stopped in her tracks.

"…Yeah." She said, but she hesitated before answering. There was something she was obviously not telling us about herself. Ness let out another sigh and rubbed her forehead before looking back at us. "Look. I'm sorry about being rude; things have just been a little crazy for a while now and I've been on edge. Do you guys have any place to spend the night?"

"No, but we'll probably head off soon, since you said there's no problem with the serpent." Annabeth said. I stared at her for a moment. So that's it? Just take her word for it about that thing? Something was, for lack of a better term, fishy about all this.

"It might not be the wisest for you guys to head out a night, not around here." Ness said shaking her head, "follow me, I'll take you to my place."

"Thanks Nessa, we really appreciate this." Annabeth said and shouldered her bag before following the black haired girl. I hesitated but then walked after them with Nico.

Nessa led us down across the road and along the shoreline, I tried not to look at the water, but the sound of the waves was taunting me_, 'c'mon! You know you wanna jump in!'_ it seemed to shout in my mind.

"Shut up!" I growled out loud.

"What?" Nico asked me, giving me an odd look.

"Just loosing my sanity, never you mind." I replied waving dismissively. Unsurprisingly that only got him to stare at me longer. Suddenly the sound of something big bounding our way jarred me out of my episode. A huge shadow the size of a dump truck charged toward us and came to a stop almost on top of a very surprised Nessa.

"HOLY HERA!" she shouted, falling back on her butt, eyes wide as an enormous tongue started licking her all over. I held back a laugh as I ran forward.

"Hey Mrs. O' Leary, lay off her." I said, unable to hide an amused grin, thankfully I wasn't the only one. The Hellhound let out a big _AROOF_! And stopped her lick attack on the girl and grew a new interest in chasing her tail instead. Ness seemed to be frozen in place on the ground as she looked at us.

"W-what the w-what?" was all she said in a higher octave than usual. Annabeth helped her to her feet.

"Sorry about that, we probably should have warned you about Mrs. O' Leary." She apologized. Ness wiped of the drool on her face.

"Yeah that would've been nice…" she said through her teeth before giving the friendly Hellhound a weary glance before taking a deep breath, "uh…so she wont try and kill us?"

"No, she's perfectly safe." I explained but then whispered in her ear, _"to people she likes…"_

Ok that was probably mean but I couldn't help it, unfortunately Annabeth heard that and elbowed me in the ribs. Nessa snorted and gestured for us to follow once again. Mrs. O' Leary happily trotted behind us as we made it to the other end of the beach where an old weathered shack sat in the sand, Ness walked to the door and pushed it open.

"Voila." She said holding out her arm, "cozy isn't it?"

"This is where you sleep?" I blurted out. Stupid ADHD, it tended to make me say things without my brain's consent first. Nessa only gave me an amused look as we went in. There wasn't really anything in it, several shelves with all kinds of snacks, a cooler sat on the wood planks that made up the floor and there was a mountain of blankets sitting in the corner. In all honesty, it did seem cozy; it reminded me of when my mom and I went to our cabin on the beach all those years. Nico took a few blankets and immediately collapsed asleep; Annabeth took her own and lay down against the wall and slowly dozed off. I sat there looking out the small window of the shack. This all seemed strange to me, I didn't know why Ness wanted us gone one moment but then wanted to help us the next, Nico and Annabeth seemed to immediately trust her but I didn't. I saw her walking along the beach until she was a smudge in the distance. That was my chance.

I quietly stood up with my pen in hand and crept out of the shack. The moonlight cast an eerie white tinge onto everything, making it feel like we were somewhere not of this world. Mrs. O' Leary's snores were so loud I was surprised anyone could get any sleep. I continued to walk along the water while looking out into the darkness. I really didn't know what I was doing, I just needed to gather my thoughts, figure out what I was going to do. There was still this strange feeling I had ever since I arrived at this stupid lake that I desperately wanted to get rid of but it just wouldn't go away. I kept wandering until I was far from the beach, still along the edge of the lake, but the town was far away, now there were only trees and an empty road behind me.

A wake in the water immediately caught my attention. I faced the water, the familiar weight of my sword once again in my hand as I glared and waited. And waited. And waited…

"This is ridiculous…" I muttered, what was taking that stupid serpent so long? I just wanted it to surface so I could get this over with!

I let out an angry sigh and turned my back to the water.

That's when I heard its roar…

It was so loud that it made the ground vibrate beneath my feet. I whipped around to come face to face with a pair of enormous yellow reptilian eyes. I let out a rather undignified squeak and jumped back several feet.

The serpent was huge, it had coppery scales and a sail running down its back, it's body weaved in and out of the water like those classic Ogopogo pictures. It almost looked like a Drakon, it certainly resembled one, but they didn't live in water…or did they?

It hissed at me and snapped but I swung my sword to keep it away.

"GET BACK!" I shouted, it simply growled and snapped at me again. I rolled out of the way and sliced my sword across the side of its neck, but my blade simply sparked harmlessly across its iron-like skin, only making it mad. I took a deep breath and let out a battle cry, charging towards it raising my sword as it lowered its head and glared. I thrust my sword down…

Only to have it deflected by another blade, or two.

I stumbled backwards and looked to see who had gotten in my way, only to see a girl with black hair and green eyes holding two bronze swords in each hand, the blades' edges were strange shades of blue.

Nessa.

I stared at her for a few moments and then at the serpent. The first thing I noticed is that it immediately stopped hissing and snapping, it simply wadded in the water, as if waiting for something. Ness sheathed her swords and crossed her arms.

"You just had to come snooping around." She said, I didn't put riptide away as I kept looking at the monster.

"But…it was snapping…and I was…it's just sitting there!" I babbled probably looking like I had lost my mind. I probably did. To my surprise Nessa snickered and turned towards the beast. It lowered its huge head to her level. At first I thought it was going to snap her up or breath fire or something that serpents usually did, but instead it let out a sound that sounded suspiciously like a purr as she rubbed the tip of its nose.

"He only feeds if I tell him to, Jackson." She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You control it?" I demanded. Nessa turned around to face me again.

"No…he just listens to me." She replied. I gripped my hair and paced back and forth; alright, this was all sort of…anticlimactic in a way. I was loosing my sanity over a pet of a water naiad. Ness rolled her eyes.

"You know, it's not safe for you to be out here." She said, I just shot a look at her.

"Believe it or not I've gone out in the dark before…" I told her in a deadpan tone. But then the water started to stir around the serpent. Ness immediately stood alert, ignoring my comment.

"Go, get out of here!" she ordered the beast. It let out a hiss of protest but eventually submerged beneath the waves once more. Unfortunately the water was still boiling, and it wasn't because of Nessa's serpent. She cracked her knuckles and looked at me,

"Looks like you're about to experience my work firsthand, son of Poseidon."

"And that work would be?" I asked. Before she could answer, something burst out of the water, or several somethings was more like it. About six creatures emerged onto shore; they were all humanoids with green skin, webbed feet and webbed fingers. They all wore Greek armor and their weapons varied from swords to spears. I saw Nessa narrow her eyes at them and took a step back. I did the same, slowly pulling my pen out of my pocket. Ness stepped beside me and leaned over.

"You ever fought rogue water spirits before?" she asked in a casual tone.

"Uhh…no." I replied. Ness nodded slowly and started walking forward.

"Then this'll all be new to you…follow my lead." She ordered and broke into a run. I watched as she met the closest spirit and clenched her fists out in front of her and pulled them in. To my shock, the lake water responded and rose up until it surrounded the monster and started wrapping around its legs. She then let out a snarl and thrust her fists out towards the tree like she was tossing a spear; the water obeyed and launched the spirit towards the woods. It hit a tree so hard that it burst, but not into yellow sulfurous sand as most monsters did, instead it burst into a splash of water. I copied the movements and tossed one more at the trees before another came at me brandishing its sword. I pulled out Riptide and deflected the blade and slashed across its abdomen. It let out a howl and burst apart, most of the water splashing on me, yuck, but the rest landed in the lake.

"NO!" Ness shouted, looking at me in horror and rage.

"What? I destroyed it didn't I? Or was that one a pet of yours as well?" I demanded as I met another in combat. Ness thrust another one away before running at another one.

"No you barnacle head! You must not destroy them near the fresh water! Lead them away from my lake before killing them!" she ordered as she forced it away from the water before slicing it into thirds with her two swords. I nodded and put away riptide. I then repeated the earlier motion of using the water to flick the last two out of the lake into the woods before slicing them apart and watching them burst.

We both were breathing hard and looking at each other. Ness finally let out a sigh and placed both of her swords away. I glanced at where the spirits had been killed and I definitely understood what Ness was talking about when she told me to kill them away from the lake; everywhere the monster water pooled, the grass turned brown and died. I could see she was upset while looking at the damage.

"Now you see what I mean?" she asked, I nodded once.

"Yeah but…I've never heard of water spirits before, they don't sound like anything from the myths." I said. She just seemed to scoff lightly at that.

"That's because they don't write myths about everything, son of Poseidon." She muttered, I couldn't really tell if she was talking to herself, or me, "They wreak havoc on the fresh water realms because they originate from the sea. They were followers of the old sea gods and titans, before Poseidon, and back then they didn't care about the difference between fresh water and salt water, it was all just 'domain to be conquered and ruled' to them."

"So it's your job to keep them away?" I summed up. She nodded coldly.

"Sea water doesn't bode well for my realms." She muttered, she fixed at glare at me like this was somehow my fault that those things attacked. I wanted to get mad at her, but I also started to figure out why she seemed to hate me so much.

"So that's why you don't want me here? Why you tried to feed my to your serpent earlier?" I asked her. She didn't reply to me but I could tell I hit the nail on the head. I let out a sigh and looked at riptide, now back in pen form. "You think I'm going to wreck your ecosystem because I'm from the sea."

Again, she didn't say anything. But her eyes seemed less angry, the almost looked…guilty. I shuffled awkwardly beside her.

"Look…I know we haven't exactly gotten along…but I want you to know that I would never do anything to disturb your realm, my father wouldn't either. We do respect fresh water, that's why we leave it to you Naiads. And…if you need any help getting rid of those spirits…all you have to do is ask." I said quietly. She looked at me with a doubtful expression, but it eventually morphed into a softer one…hopeful.

"Well…I must admit you are pretty good with that sword." She said and then let out a sigh, "I guess I have been kind of unfair to judge you right away…I'm sorry."

"No worries." I mumbled. We both stood there and looked out at the lake. Now it didn't seem so dark and uninviting anymore.

Almost like it was reflecting Nessa's own feelings.

* * *

**More to come! not sure when XD**


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